Pharol SGPS SA, the controlling shareholder of Brazil's debt-laden telephone carrier Oi SA, said in a statement on Tuesday that Rafael Mora had resigned as Pharol's executive director and a member of Oi's board, Reuters reported. João do Passo Vicente Ribeiro, previously named as Mora's alternate on Oi's board, will take his board seat, according to a Pharol press representative. The statement did not give a reason for Mora's resignation. Read more.

A São Paulo court granted Brazilian homebuilder PDG Realty SA bankruptcy protection on Thursday, the company said in a securities filing. PDG sought protection from creditors last week to enable it to restructure its debt, Brazil's second publicly listed builder to do so in less than six months, Reuters reported. PDG's gross debt was 5.4 billion reais ($1.75 billion) at the end of September, according to a quarterly earnings report. Read more.

Brazil’s government can’t waive Oi SA’s debt with a local regulator and state-run banks, the communications minister said, denying the phone carrier a lifeline that would have helped it pull out of the biggest bankruptcy in the country’s history, Bloomberg News reported. “The government can’t let go of resources, they are public resources, debt with the public administration," Science and Technology Minister Gilberto Kassab said Sunday in an interview in Barcelona, Spain. The debt with the regulator is Oi’s main problem with the government, said Kassab, who also oversees communications.

Brazilian homebuilder PDG Realty SA said it was seeking protection from creditors by filing on Wednesday to restructure its debt in court, the country's second publicly listed builder to do so in less than six months, Reuters reported. PDG's gross debt was 5.4 billion reais ($1.75 billion) at the end of September, according to a quarterly earnings report. The company had 235 million reais of cash on hand at the time.

Grupo BTG Pactual, the Brazilian lender that slashed its workforce in 2016 and sold off assets to survive a liquidity crisis, is investing in Chile with plans to start lending, Bloomberg News reported. Rodrigo Oyarzo joined BTG to head the new credit business, according to Juan Guillermo Aguero, BTG’s chief executive officer for Chile. The idea is to use the Sao Paulo-based company’s banking license in Chile, obtained in 2014, to provide more “strategic” loans to clients tied to mergers and capital-markets transactions, Aguero said.

For a quarter century, one man ruled the Rio Parana, the mighty Mississippi of Argentina. His name is Omar Suarez. Along the Parana, the nation’s pipeline for key exports including soybeans, corn and wheat, he is better known as El Caballo: a hard-charging horse. Little moved down the river unless Suarez, a union boss, received tribute, authorities say. For crews and companies alike, El Caballo epitomized the culture of corruption that has held back Argentina’s economy for decades, Bloomberg News reported. Today, the story of El Caballo is, in a way, playing out across the country.

PDG Realty SA, the Brazilian homebuilder struggling with a cash crunch, is considering surrendering buildings and land given as collateral to creditors ahead of a potential in-court reorganization, two people directly involved in the plan said. São Paulo-based PDG hired restructuring advisory firm RK Partners in November to come up with a rescue plan, Reuters reported. Terms of the plan contemplate giving creditors control of some assets guaranteeing debt issued by about 700 special purpose vehicles created to fund projects, the people said.

Argentina's President Mauricio Macri said on Thursday he would annul an agreement his government reached to resolve a 15-year-old debt the country's postal service incurred when it was owned by Macri's father, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. Macri spoke after a federal prosecutor asked a judge to open an investigation into him and Communications Minister Oscar Aguad earlier this week.

Changes in Brazil's telecom law currently under debate in the Senate are not being taken into account by debt-laden carrier Oi SA as it devises its in-court reorganization plan, Oi Chief Executive Marcos Schroeder said on Tuesday. Speaking at an industry event in Brasília, Schroeder said the imminent reforms will have no economic effect on the company's reorganization in bankruptcy court, Reuters reported. The bill had been scheduled to become law last December but was held up in the Senate after opposition legislators filed a motion to submit it to a vote by the full house.

A prosecutor asked to investigate Argentine President Mauricio Macri on Tuesday over a deal to resolve debt the country's postal service incurred with the government when it was owned by Macri's father, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. A judge will decide whether or not to open an investigation, which could hurt center-right Macri's party in congressional elections later this year. Earlier on Tuesday, Cabinet Chief Marcos Peña asked for an independent audit of the deal to resolve the debt and denied any wrongdoing by Macri's government.